Tag Archives: book reviews

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(book) Koji Suzuki – Dark Water

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I found somewhere that Koji Suzuki is called Japanese Stephen King. Well I read his famous Ringu, which was a base for Japanese Ring movies and also couple of American remake and its sequels and spinoffs. Ringu was fine book. Dark Water was also made into a movie, which also got American remake, but this one was not based on a novel, but on a short story from this short story compilation by Suzuki. Each of the stories is in fact one chapter, but you might have guessed it, common denominator to all of the stories is water, whether being in tank on top of the building, or ocean, or lake, water is crucial to horror in each of the stories. As in any short story collection, some are great, some are boring. What bothers me about this collection is that horror creeps too slow and it is hard to keep you as a reader concentrated because it is too slow and even boring in some parts, although there are couple of creepy moments in there. This one is not what I was hoping for to be, so if you want to read something by Koji Suzuki, better read his novel Ringu.

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(book) John Saul – Suffer The Children

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John Saul (born 1942) is one of my favorite horror authors. His books are numerous and a bit similar to Stephen King works but with one big difference. There are many Saul’s novels that have no happy ending and are pretty bleak and depressive. Also, many of his novels deal with families, children and, how should I put it, ordinary people in ordinary situations that become horror due to some curse or other reason. This time story takes us to little Californian town by the ocean where lives family Conger who were once the richest and most influential family of that time. But, there is a curse on that family which involves suicide, accidental death, eerie family portrait and two daughters who roam at night through the woods and in the ancient cave. Then children start to disappear and something evil lurks around.

Book is divided into three parts, kind of intro, past and present represented in last two or three chapters. This is a slow one, with couple of gory scenes and kind of sad ending, not to spoil it right now. This is not Saul’s best work in my opinion from what I read until now, but it is a decent horror novel. No nudity, a little gore and mainly suspense and mistery. Okay one.

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(book) Marc Spitz – Nobody likes you: inside the turbulent life, time and music of Green Day

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This one was written by late great journalist and publicist Marc Spitz who passed away in 2017. When I bought this book I actually wanted to learn more about phenomenon of Green Day, their success, rise and almost fall and then rise back. Most of all I wanted to find out an answer to my question, are they still punk or aren’t they? How much does it take to ‘sell out’ and betray the scene and ideals, did they really or is it just a mantra that is always present in this our little punk hardcore scene. Is signing up to major label betrayal? How much does it take to compromise and change your music due to request from your label bosses and men in corporate suits?

Well, this book is biography of this band, from their starts and playing at Berkeley, California and first two albums and history with legendary pop punk label Lookout Records, whose main man Larry Livermore says a lot about in this book. Besides main three protagonists, Billie Joe, Mike and Tre, lots of other punk scene alumni say a lot in this book, for example Fat Mike(Nofx/Fat Wreck), Brett Gurewitz(Bad Religion/Epitaph Records) and many more. Then of course there are major label years from Dookie to almost falling out and break up prior to first concept pop punk opera, album American Idiot, with this album this book also ends up, although there are couple of years and albums after that made this band still arena attraction. What I would like more is anecdotes from touring and some unknown and weird/funny stuff. There are couple situations here in the book like infamous Woodstock 94 mud show, trouble with shitting on balcony and beef and eternal war with The Offspring of which I would certainly like to find out more. But, did I find out the answers from the beginning of this review? Yes and no. Are they still punk? Yes and no in my opinion. They definitely kept their punk roots mixed with pop influences that Billie Joe had since his early childhood when he recorded his first single as a five year boy. Is signing to major betrayal? I would not do that with my band because there are enough let’s call them underground major labels like Fat Wreck, Epitaph and couple more to stay on them an keep your integrity. Are Green Day band with couple of anthological pop punk albums and hits, also with couple of crappy ones? Yes they are. Okay book, but nothing really insightful.

3/5